Page:CTRL0000034600 - Transcribed Interview of Richard Peter Donoghue, (Oct. 1, 2021).pdf/93

93 Right. You mentioned that this also was sent to the Solicitor General. Was the view of the Solicitor General consistent with the OLC view?

Yes. They were very similar.

All right. Now, despite that, did you have some one conversation with one of the lawyers who purported to be calling on behalf of the President about the Department's position on this litigation?

Yes. The DAG and I had a conversation with him on December 30th.

Tell us about that. I think your notes of that conversation are at tab 16.

Right. So just a clarification here. The date is connect. The name I have at the top is not. It says: DAG call with Ken Kohl. Ken Kohl was the first assistant in the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office. We were dealing with Ken on preparation for January 6th, which was going on at the same time. And we were literally doing one call about January 6th and another call about these election matters. We were bouncing back and forth. And so I wrote down "Ken Kohl" I think because I just hung up the phone from Ken Kohl. But that's incorrect, and this conversation was with Kurt Olsen, one of the attorneys that the chief of staff had referenced when we were in his office on the 29th.

I see. So this is a conversation with Kurt Olsen, not Ken Kohl?

Correct.

Okay. Tell us about the conversation.

Mr. Olsen had been trying to get in contact with the Deputy Attorney General, the Acting AG for a day or two. He was making calls and sending emails to his chief of staff, John Moran, repeatedly, trying to get a meeting. The Acting Attorney General said: I'm not meeting with this guy.

Ultimately, he decided to take a phone call from him. And so that call happened